Beautiful camels eclipse beautiful game at Qatar World Cup
While the FIFA World Cup is in full swing in Qatar, camels from different Gulf countries are having a tournament of their own at the Qatar Camel Mzayen Club's beauty festival.
"The idea is similar to the soccer World Cup, we did a camel beauty World Cup”, said the president of the club, Hamad Jaber al-Athba, underlining the importance of camels in the area, 'a companion during the beginning of civilization in the Gulf'.
With their heads held high and in a constant chew, participating camels waited in a pen before being paraded in front of an audience seated indoors and enjoying coffee and sweets while gauging the beautiful beasts.
With participants from different Gulf countries, the competition is fierce between camels running in different categories according to their age and type.
"Black camels are judged according to the size of the body and the head and the location of the ears. But with the Maghateer-type camel, we look for proportionality and the ears should be dropping down, not stand straight. In addition to the way the mouth is curved,” Athba said.
To avoid fraud and detect ‘cosmetic surgery’, a medical committee examined the animals before allowing them to participate in the beauty pageant.
According to the medical committee’s president, owners sometimes use fillers, botox or silicon to increase their camel’s chances of winning - a disqualifying foul.
Ahead of declaring the winner of the day’s competing category, other female camels were milked and the owner of the one producing the most was rewarded 20,000 Qatari riyals (about 5,500 USD).
But all eyes were on the competition between Maghateer-type camels over the age of four, the day’s competing category, and whose winner fetched a sum ten times higher.
The Saudi owner of camels who won bronze and gold in the competition, Mohanna Ibrahim al-Anazi, was thrilled after receiving his prize.
"I can't describe my feelings, because this female has an audience like the audience of the World Cup. Like Real Madrid or Manchester (United). And now, they are all celebrating,” he said.
